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DIY magnetic knife bar (holder) - may way

This is will be a long story

Background:

The influence of this forum had expensive outcome of new knives that do not fit our current knife holder (wooden block). I decided to have a look at magnetic holders. I found one that looked OK here in Germany, but once delivered it was clear that it will not do the job - it had just one row of magnets so the knives would 'dangle' once attached. It was also very narrow (4 cm). Also - the bar was made from 2 cm thick bar that was supposed to be attached directly on the wall - what mean that one had about 1cm spec between the knife-handles and the wall - not practical. I realized that magnetic holder needs 2 rows of magnets and be wider AND further away from the wall to be comfortable to use. I then found a very interestingly looking (and cleverly designed) knife holder from knifekraft in New Zealand, but the price was high and the wood I would have preferred not available at the time. So I decided to try to make my own holder.

The Design:

As much as I liked the designed of the Knifekraft holder, I could not do a similar one as I have NO workshop or access to one, so I had to keep it simple. What I knew is that I want a knife bar that is about 60 cm long, 8 - 10 cm wide and has some more distance from the wall so that the knives would be easier to grab. I decided to use round magnets (neodymium of course) and it turned out that magnets with 10 mm diameter and 5 mm thickness will do the job. I did install a few 10 mm thick magnets on one side (I bought them for testing), but it turned out not to be necessary.

The upper picture show the spacer bar, but bottom picture the test drilling.

Detail of the drill bit - I have used one specifically for wood (the top surface is flat), but I have filed the tip as it was way too long and would have punched the front surface of the bar when drilling. I have also got an 'end-stop' that allowed to me keep the drilling depth constant (VERY important) and precise.

Adjusting the depth of the drilling - testing with magnets showed the the remaining thickness of the wood between the magnets and the knife needs to be less than 3mm for the magnetic force to be sufficient to keep the knives in place.

I did several drills on the edge of the bar to make the inspection easier.

Sketching the positions to drill. I went with 20 mm spacing - I wanted to get the magnetic field as homogeneous as possible (it worked reasonably well).

So - all holes drilled. I used one magnet and a hex key to check that all holes are OK and the magnets do not get stuck.

Surface finish (no photo).

When I bought the bar, one of its long edges was clipped under 45 deg. I first was not happy about that, but than I decided to round it and place it up on to make lifting a knife more comfortable and save (edge of knife would not hit edge of the bar)

As the bar had no surface finish I went through 3 cycles of: wet the bar with water (not too much), let it dry and polish the surface with sand paper. After each wetting the surface would get a bit rough, but after 3 cycles it was much better. After that I tarnished the surface with hind oil. Thanks to the first 3 polishing rounds the bar remained smooth after oiling.

Once I started to put magnets in place I realized that they do not want to 'sit nicely' in the holes, but would jump around or tilt inside the holes. To mitigate this problem I have paced baking sheet (iron) under the bar and of course the magnets would all attach it to the bar and sit as they should.

Gluing. I used 2 component epoxy glue - a 'slow' one that remains fluid about 30 minutes after mixing - this would give me enough time to slowly drop a bit inside each hole. As I had 60 holes to fill I still needed around an hour to get it done. But I had not clever applicator to do it. Note - I did not put ANY glue UNDER the magnets. That would just increase the space between magnets and knives. Note: you do not need too much glue - layer of 1-2 mm on top of the magnets is enough (epoxy is very strong).

The spacer bar. I have decided that the attachment of the magnetic bar on the wall will be in 2 steps. First I would attach the spacer bar to the wall and then I would attach the magnetic bar to the spacer - for the case I would want to attach the magnetic bar in a different way in future. So here you see my FIRST approach - I just nailed these threaded pieces in the bar (drilled first of course), but then I realized that this is not the best way, as these stick out of the bar and would make attachment to wall problematic. So - I did NOT use this way.

Instead - I have glued female screws inside the bar. Actually - I first glued TWO of these together before I glued them inside the bar. To make sure I will not get epoxy on the threads I did not hammer the threads in the bar, but pulled them with a acre from inside. So I did get epoxy on the screw, but not on the female screws.

Finally - the result. The bar mounted on the wall with all our kitchen knives.

Side view - you can see the spacer bar. You can also see the rounded upper edge of the bar - it makes lifting a putting the knives back on the bar really easier and decreases the chance of damaging the edge.